MacD on Music: Three Miles High

What do Frank Sinatra, Suge Knight, Herb Alpert and Eminem all have in common? The answer? All are founders of their own record labels.

Recently, Dylan Bradley, frontman of Parker (whose debut album ‘Never Let This Go’ is available now in Cool Discs), has joined these ranks with the official opening of Three Mile Records. I spoke to Dylan last week about the label, what made him want to start it and what the future holds for it.

“I’ve wanted to start a label my whole life. Since I was about sixteen, I’ve been obsessed with the American Hardcore scene. The whole thing there was a bunch of different bands starting their own labels to put out their own music and release their mate’s music.

"You had, like, Discord with Ian MacKaye and Derry had a similar version of that with Small Town America Records and Jetplane Landing. I was always really inspired by that sort of thing. It’s always been a dream to have my own label. I basically started 3MR to put out the Parker album last year because nobody else wanted to, so we decided we’ll do it ourselves.

"I started the label to do that but I didn’t make a big deal of it because, at that point, it was purely to release my own music, but then an opportunity came up earlier this year, a band that I’m mad about approached me and asked if I’d be interested in putting their album out for them so I was like ‘Let’s give this a proper go’.

"I decided to make the label a thing of its own. The intention is, we’ve got a record coming later this year with another band I can’t announce yet, but once that’s out the plan is just to keep trying to release music for bands I love.”

I asked Dylan if he was going to keep things local or was he interested in artists from further afield: “The first band happens to be local but I’m open to anything that I like. They don’t need to be from Derry. If it’s a band that I love and they want to put out a full-length album, then that’s what I would like to help facilitate.”

“[The label] has been in the works behind the scenes for about six months. There’s a lot of background to do with these sorts of things. I kept it very under wraps. [Last week] was the official public announcement that it exists as a record label. We’ve just announced a gig as well [this year’s Not Really on Halloween in Bennigan’s]. We’re going to be putting on occasional shows in Derry is the plan.”

Next, I asked whether the label would be focusing on physical or digital releases: “I’m going to do both, but the main point of this is to put music out on vinyl because I love it. I’m obsessed with vinyl. I think it’s the best format to listen to music on. I feel like it’s something that people don’t do because it doesn’t make financial sense, or it’s a lot of work if you’re doing online deliveries and get into record shops.

"It’s something I have a bit of experience in that I can help the bands do. I feel that if an album’s really good you have to have it on vinyl. We’re going to CDs as well, but the priority is vinyl.”

“This is a passion project. I’m not trying to make any money. At the same time, we’re not trying to be an artist development company. We’re not trying to manage people. There’s plenty of people doing that. We want to be like an old school record label. The whole point of this is to take songs, put them on records and get them out there. We’re not trying to make people stars or anything like that.”

“At the minute [the label] is just me, but I have people who help. Caoimhe Sweeney, who’s a fantastic artist from Derry, has done all of our graphics. I’ve outsourced lots of things and I’ll continue to do that. There’s plenty of people willing to help. If I can create work for other local, independent artists that want to do work, I’d love to do that. I’d love to collaborate with local shops and stuff. We put out the last album for Parker in Cool Discs and it did really well in there, so I’m hoping to continue to work with people like Lee [Mason].”

And that’s it from Dylan. The first Three Mile Records gig will be in Bennigan’s on Halloween night, the third annual Not Really, where your favourite bands play as their favourite bands. It’s always a fun night and always sells out fast, so get tickets now while you still can.

Now, some quick other business. Last week saw the release of The Suite’s third single ‘Wanna-Be’. It’s the first single from their upcoming EP that will be released next year and is available now on all good streaming platforms.

Finally, time for the socials. The Suite can be found on Instagram @thesuite.band, Dylan @dylanfromparker and Three Mile Records @threemilerecordz.